AFS-13-140-E

Exemption No. 11049

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION

WASHINGTON, DC 20591

 

In the matter of the petition of 

 

NORTH AMERICAN AIR Regulatory Docket No. FAA-2012-1342

CHARTER, INC. 

 

for an exemption from § 135.324 

of Title 14, Code of 

Federal Regulations 

DENIAL OF EXEMPTION

 By letter dated December 10, 2012, Mr. Jonathan D. Ross, Director of Operations, North 

American Air Charter, Inc. (North American), 90 Arrival Avenue, Suite 20, LI MacArthur 

Airport – Ronkonkoma, NY 11779, petitioned the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on 

behalf of North American for relief from the guidance provided in FAA Notice 8900.197. 

Notice 8900.197 was issued in an effort to identify and correct part 135 training programs 

providing credit for previous training and/or qualification received from a different certificate 

holder contrary to § 135.324 and to provide guidance for POI approval of reduced training 

hour curricula for initial, transition, or upgrade training. The FAA does not grant relief from 

guidance material. Therefore, the request will be processed as a petition for exemption from 

§ 135.324 of Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR). The proposed exemption, if 

granted, would allow credit for previous aircraft specific ground and flight training that a

crewmember received at a 14 CFR part 142 training center while employed by another 

certificate holder. Part 135, Subpart H does not permit a certificate holder to take credit for 

training and evaluations conducted in accordance with another certificate holder’s approved 

training program. 

The petitioner requests relief from the following regulation:

Section 135.324 prescribes, in pertinent part, that —

a) Other than the certificate holder, only another certificate holder certificated 

under this part or a training center certificated under part 142 of this chapter is 

eligible under this subpart to conduct training, testing, and checking under 
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contract or other arrangement to those persons subject to the requirements of 

this subpart.

b) A certificate holder may contract with, or otherwise arrange to use the services 

of, a training center certificated under part 142 of this chapter to conduct 

training, testing, and checking required by this part only if the training center –

1) Holds applicable training specifications issued under part 142 of this 

chapter;

2) Has facilities, training equipment, and courseware meeting the 

applicable requirements of part 142 of this chapter;

3) Has approved curriculums, curriculum segments, and portions of 

curriculum segments applicable for use in training courses required by 

this subpart; and

4) Has sufficient instructor and check airmen qualified under the applicable 

requirements of §§ 135.337 through 135.340 to provide training, testing, 

and checking to persons subject to the requirements of this subpart.

The petitioner supports its request with the following information:

North American asserts that the aircraft specific ground and flight training administered by the 

part 142 training center is essentially identical between certificate holders. The petitioner 

states that minor certificate holder-specific differences are left to the individual certificate 

holders to include in their basic indoctrination training.

The petitioner requests to conduct operations that allow credit for training conducted by a 

part 142 training center for another certificate holder within the following guidelines:

1. The petitioner would allow credit for the aircraft specific flight and ground training 

that takes place at one of the part 142 training centers that it has contractual 

arrangements with, even though the training may have taken place on behalf of 

another certificate holder.

2. The petitioner stated it is not seeking credit for the testing requirements of 

§ 135.293(a)(1) and (4) through (8), but would conduct its own evaluations of 

§ 135.293(a)(1) and (4) through (8). The petitioner states that evaluations under 

§§ 135.293(a)(1) and (4) through (8), and 135.299 would examine certificate holder

specific areas. The petitioner states it would not use any pilot that has not been 

thoroughly evaluated by its own check airmen, as described in this paragraph.

3. The petitioner states that each flightcrew member granted credit for aircraft specific 

flight and ground training received at a part 142 training center on behalf of another 

certificate holder would have successfully completed and been evaluated on the 

petitioner’s basic indoctrination training before receiving any training credit.
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4. The petitioner states the Pilot Record Improvement Act (PRIA) request to previous

employers would contain all information necessary to perform a gap analysis of the 

training for which training credit is being sought. The petitioner stated it would not 

grant any equivalent training credit unless it had first received the information that 

is supplied by a PRIA request.

The petitioner further states that granting this petition would benefit the public because “[i]t is 

a generally accepted fact that the use of flight simulator based aircraft training is an asset to 

flight safety” and “those that engage in this training are less likely to be involved in an aircraft 

accident.” The petitioner states that if this petition is not granted, operators would be 

encouraged to conduct training in aircraft on an in house basis instead of using simulator 

based training at a part 142 training center, which the petitioner believes is generally regarded 

to be far less effective. In addition, the petitioner asserts there would be a substantial 

economic impact if this petition is not granted due to the cost of training a pilot and the lack 

of availability of qualified pilots.

A summary of the petition was published in the Federal Register on June 19, 2013. One 

comment was received in support of the petitioner’s request.

The FAA's analysis is as follows:

The FAA has fully considered North American’s petition for exemption from § 135.324,

including supporting information, and finds that a grant of exemption would not provide a

level of safety equivalent to that provided by the regulation and would not be in the public 

interest. 

The petitioner asserts that the aircraft-specific ground and flight training administered by the 

part 142 training center is essentially identical between certificate holders. However, the 

petitioner’s proposed procedure does not state how it would comply with the aircraft-specific 

pilot testing requirements of § 135.293(a)(2) and (3). Moreover, in accordance with 

§ 135.323(a)(1), each certificate holder must establish and implement an approved training 

program that satisfies the requirements of Subpart H of part 135 and ensures that each 

crewmember is adequately trained to perform his or her assigned duties. 

As stated in a legal interpretation of the training rules in subpart H of part 135 to Charles A. 

Spillner1

, issued May 30, 2013, “a common thread of part 135 training rules is that the 

certificate holder is responsible for ensuring that its crewmembers meet the standards for 

operating under that part and that its training program must be tailored to that certificate 

holder’s operations.” Since each certificate holder has different operating specifications, 

procedures, methods, checklists, etc., which have a direct impact on the crewmember’s 

assigned duties, no two certificate holders will have the same training program.

 1

 http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/agc/pol_adjudication/agc200/interpretations/data/interps/2013/spillnercas%20aviation%20-%20(2013)%20legal%20interpretation.pdf
4

Further, in a legal interpretation of §121.402 (a parallel provision to the requirements in 

§135.324) issued to Francis M. DeJoseph2 February 28, 2013, the agency noted that the 

rulemaking, which added §§ 121.402 and 135.324, “simply did not contemplate transferring

training credits between ... certificate holders for the purposes of satisfying the training 

requirements of a hiring certificate holder. Rather, the issue of "crediting" training was only 

discussed in the rulemaking documents in the context of expanding credit for training 

completed in a simulator that was traditionally required to be completed in flight.” The FAA 

emphasizes that the requirements of § 135.324, as interpreted by the agency, do not preclude a 

certificate holder from seeking approval from the FAA of an additional training “curriculum 

(containing all required subjects and tasks) with reduced program hour requirements [for 

experienced crewmembers] based on a particular level of previously attained knowledge and 

skill.” See DeJoseph interpretation. 

Therefore, enabling one certificate holder to grant credit for training provided under another 

certificate holder’s approved training program would not provide a level of safety equal to that 

provided by the rule. 

The petitioner asserts this petition is in the public interest because otherwise operators would 

be encouraged to conduct training in aircraft instead of using simulator based training at a 

part 142 training center, which is generally considered less effective. The FAA is not 

convinced that denying this petition will encourage certificate holders to conduct training in 

aircraft instead of simulators.

The FAA’s Decision:

In consideration of the foregoing, I find that a grant of exemption would not provide an 

equivalent level of safety or be in the public interest. Therefore, pursuant to the authority 

contained in 49 U.S.C. §§ 106 (f), 40113 and 44701, delegated to me by the Administrator, 

the petition of North American Air Charter, Inc., for an exemption from 14 CFR § 135.324 is 

hereby denied. 

Issued in Washington, DC, on September 2, 2014. .

/S/

John Barbagallo

Acting Deputy Director, Flight Standards Service

 2 http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/agc/pol_adjudication/agc200/interpretations/data/interps/2013/dejoseph-2%20-

%20(2013)%20legal%20interpretation.pdf